14 replies so far

That does seem like a waste to me. I can think of a lot of other great things to make with one. When I was building a street organ, it called for disks to be used for the cranking mechanism. The disk work good, and are in hundreds of organs, but a friend sent me a couple sets of gears he made on his CNC router. One set of wood and one set out of PVC. Boy, are they nice and work real well. I’d love to be smart and wealthy enough to make a CNC router.

-- “We all die. The goal isn't to live forever; the goal is to create something that will.” - Chuck Palahniuk

I would like to clear up a misconception here. We that have a cnc router do not sit around all day making switch plates. I happened to previously see this posted file and downloaded the files. I do not plan to redo every switch plate in my house, but I always learn something from these projects, the techniques used in creating the tool paths, sequence and cutting strategy. I like many of you learn from viewing projects LJ’s present here with a variety of tools all the way from hand tool projects to those turned on a lathe. If you don’t believe that a cnc router is a woodworking tool that is your opinion and I’m ok with it. But I’m having a lot of fun with mine!

CNC routers are the way to go if you are making a lot of the same intricate cuts. They also allow for a level of precision you could never achieve by hand. CNC routers are not for everyone. They are used by commercial woodworkers a lot. They save time and ensure all parts are perfect. I ame building a CNC router for home use. The cost is around $1500. I build model trains and some of the parts that are usually made from cast metals, can easily be done with CNC. At 79, I can’t waste my time making a lot of the same parts by old fashioned methods; besides; Im a technology junkie.

CNC’s make anything repetitive faster and cheaper, perfectly accurately, and with far less skill needed by the operator.

By “operator”, I do not mean the person creating or programming the design, but the $8/hr person needed to mount and dismount material, and to hit the “Start” button.

If you’re making one table, CNC is probably silly outside of an engineering exercise. Making 20 cabinets? Now, you’re talking! I have local small shop cabinet makers cutting all the box parts with a 4×8 CNC, with no mistakes, minimal waste, and very little risk of operator injury.

Think about the difference in skill needed between someone who can cut box parts from a cutlist with a table saw, as opposed to someone skidding a sheet into a corner stop every time the machine stops.

The precision required in making solid body electric guitars and basses is a perfect fit for a CNC. I choose this late in the game not to make that investment. What I have used, with acceptable success, is a Marlin Router Duplicator. Beautifully built machine.

And it’s actually fun to make patterns, set it up and replicate, replicate, replicate.

And if I ever need to grind the rails of my full size railroad track, I know where to buy the machine to do the job!

Kindly,

Lee

-- "...in his brain, which is as dry as the remainder biscuit after a voyage, he hath strange places cramm'd with observation, the which he vents in mangled forms." --Shakespeare, "As You Like It"